Italy - Factors to watch on Jan. 14

Reuters has not verified the newspaper reports, and cannot vouch for their accuracy. New items are marked with (*).

For a complete list of diary events in Italy please click on .

POLITICS

Ratings agency DBRS confirmed on Friday its sovereign rating on Italy at BBB(high), with a ‘stable’ outlook, despite concerns of slowing economic growth and a fiscal outlook that will become more challenging in 2020.

Treasury Minster Giovanni Tria has drawn up a decree in case of a no Brexit deal vote next week by the UK parliament which will guarantee operations by UK intermediaries and investment banks as well as British traders working on the Italian stock and bond markets to the end of 2020, Il Sole 24 Ore said on Sunday.

ECONOMY

Italy’s treasury minister said on Sunday he did not see a recession on the horizon but acknowledged there could be a period of economic stagnation.

OECD releases November composite leading indicator (1100 GMT)

BANCA MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA

The bank said on Friday the European Central Bank had warned it about its weakened capital position, a lower profitability than envisaged under its restructuring plan and the challenge posed by difficult funding markets.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena could start sounding out investors to place a covered bond next week, a source close to the matter said, after the European Central Bank warned the Italian bank about the funding risks it faced.

(*) Junior Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti was quoted as saying in the Italian press on Monday that the government had to decide in two-to-three months what it intended to do over the Tuscan bank. “I hope Monte dei Paschi will have solved its problems. If not, the government, acting responsibly, will take care of it.”

BANCA CARIGE

Nationalising Italy’s Banca Carige would not be possible under European rules, a senior senator has said, countering suggestions by other members of ruling coalition parties that this would be an option for the troubled bank.

Moody’s said on Friday it had placed the bank’s ratings under review adding the direction of the move was uncertain depending on the solution adopted for the bank.

BANCO BPM, UBI BANCA, MONTE DEI PASCHI , BANCA CARIGE

Banco BPM rules out any tie-ups for the moment given uncertain market conditions, CEO Giuseppe Castagna said on Saturday when asked about the bank’s interest in rivals Carige UBI Banca or Monte dei Paschi.

(*) DOBANK

JPMorgan improved its rating on the debt collector to “overweight” from “neutral,” raising its target price to 14 euros from 10.5 euros, saying the acquisition of Altamira provided “attractive geographic and product diversification ... keeping the fundamental attractions of the pure debt servicing model intact.” JPM estimated Altamira would be 27 percent earnings accretive in 2020 before the inclusion of potential cost or revenue synergies.

ENEL

Danish energy company Orsted, 50.1 percent owned by the state, said on Sunday that the Finance Ministry had told it there was no longer political support for continuing divestment of its power distribution and residential customer businesses. Sources said Enel was among bidders interested in the unit.

ENI

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) said on Saturday it awarded a consortium formed by Italian oil major Eni and Thailand’s PTTEP two offshore exploration blocks.

Sharjah National Oil Corporation awarded Italy’s Eni concessions in three areas, Eni said in a statement on Sunday.

Eni said on Sunday it had signed an exploration MoU in Block 1 offshore Bahrain.

TELECOM ITALIA

Telecom Italia’s board will meet to vote on a request by top investor Vivendi to call a shareholder meeting to replace five board members and appoint new auditors. French media giant Vivendi in December called for the replacement of five of Telecom Italia’s board members put forward by U.S. activist fund Elliott, citing a “substantial lack of independence”.

A Vivendi spokesman has lamented what he described as the TIM board’s “delaying tactics”, asking for the shareholder meeting to be called as soon as possible. While Vivendi would like the TIM shareholder meeting to be held by Feb. 15, the phone group’s board is more in favour of calling it for March 28-29, several papers said on Saturday.

Chairman Fulvio Conti said on Friday there was no time limit under Italian law for a company’s board to call a shareholder meeting at an investor’s behest.

Vivendi is considering asking investors at the shareholder meeting to vote on a motion asking for management to be held responsible legally for the way it has run the company, La Stampa said on Sunday.

AUTOGRILL

France’s Elior wants bids for its Areas business, which focuses on railways and motorway catering, to be submitted by the end of January, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

ATLANTIA

Autostrade per l’Italia will stump up 439 million euros to rebuild a collapsed Genoa bridge, two sources told Reuters on Friday, after Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Twitter the Atlantia unit had agreed to fund the reconstruction.

Autostrade said on Friday its board would meet on Jan. 17 to approve funding for the rebuilding of the collapsed Genoa bridge, after the company replied to the bridge commissioner’s request of money funds, expressing reservations on the amount.

BPER BANCA

The Italian regional lender is planning to but the share it does not yet own in Banco di Sardegna through an equity swap and a subordinated loan with Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, daily Il Sole 24 Ore said on Saturday. The banking foundation, a shareholder of BPER Banca with a 3 percent stake, owns 49 percent of the Sardinia-based lender.

FINECOBANK

The company has finished 2018 with a double digit growth in net profit, CEO Alessandro Foti told Class CNBC in an interview.

TELECOM ITALIA, WIND TRE, RATELIT and VUETEL

The four companies are said to have submitted an expression of interest for BT Group’s Italian assets, Il Sole 24 Ore said on Saturday, while Vodafone and Irideos have decided against it.

D’AMICO INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

The shipping group said on Friday it had paid 825,000 euros to former CEO Marco Fiori as compensation.

ALITALIA

The EU Commission has given informal clearance to a 900 million euro state loan for Italian flagship carrier Alitalia, Il Messaggero said on Sunday. The Commission has also give a green light to the state converting some 400 million euros of the loan into shares, the paper said.